In Time
by Dexterion
Summary: Time seems to be messing up around Dick Grayson right before he finds himself to be a target of an newly formed group of thugs. Now, not only is his life at risk, but their secret identities as well as these thugs find out there is much more to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. And it all started from a tiny accident.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

Gotham City  
Milinof Hotel; 18:51 EST  
Tuesday

Soft piano keys played a high social class theme to the rich Gothamites attending the charity fundraiser. From expensive dresses and highly fashioned suits, to the guest's common character and personality traits, the whole evening screamed GET-ME-OUT-OF-HERE for Bruce Wayne. The billionaire pretty-boy stood amidst the crowd, leaning against a pillar with a firm grip on his alcohol (really ginger ale) beverage.

Alfred had insisted on him and Dick to attend the evening Children's Orphanage charity fund mostly due to two things. One being that Bruce had been skipping out on plenty the past couple months and needed to keep up his social image, while the other was a reasonable excuse: it was a charity for orphanages. Perfect for Dick's social standing. Bruce didn't want to bring the poor boy along, knowing neither of them would have any real fun. But, it was for a good cause, and Bruce supported it. Besides, Alfred threatened to take away his cookies.

Bruce glanced around the crowded auditorium, the charity event taking place in one of Gotham's fanciest hotels. He saw Dick walking over to him, a slight irritation in his step and a huge frown plastered on his face. As the boy got closer, and upon closer inspection, Bruce noticed something on the young man's face and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Don't laugh at me." Dick said in a not-so-seriously-threatening tone. He stopped in front of his guardian and began rubbing his check vigorously, the red kiss mark smearing on his face.

"Who did it?" Bruce asked with a smirk. He held his drink up to his face to try and hide it, but Dick already saw.

"Her." He groaned out, pointing up at the lady that just took the stage and microphone. She was one of the hosts for the charity event.

"Ahhh," Bruce replied, his tone telling Dick a comeback was ready. "Did you make a good impression?" His father figure joked. Dick glared at him.

"What do you think, you're the detective." Dick retorted. Bruce knelt down to his level while pulling out a napkin he had on his person.

"I _think_ you're only making it worse." He stated right before he used his free hand to wipe the white fabric across Dick's cheek.

Said lady responsible for Dick Grayson's little embarrassment was now speaking into the microphone, and the guests were now moving to their reserved seats. Bruce finished up with Dick and the two joined the rest of the crowd, taking their seats at a round table near the stage.

Tenders came out from the kitchen and began serving meals to each table. One passing by Bruce and Dick's table and catching the attention of the small raven-hair boy. The platter was a dessert platter, and had some delicious looking cupcakes on it.

"Ooooooh," he announced with a big smile, "That cupcake is going to make my day." He told Bruce. One of the tenders arrived at their table and presented them with an exquisite cuisine.

"Here you are." He said while laying the plates down in front of them.

"Thank you." Bruce replied with a genuine smile, followed by Dick doing the same thing. The man looked a bit shocked from the kindness as if he'd never been thanked for his services. His features relaxed into a smile, "No, thank you." The old man happily poured Bruce a cup of coffee, while giving Dick some tea.

As the tender walked back toward the kitchen, Dick followed him a bit before returning his gaze onto his food.

"He was nice." He complimented, digging in with his practiced rich boy posture.

"Well, it just goes to show, a little bit of kindness can go a long way." Bruce replied, looking out at the crowd to see how the other guests were treating their tenders. It was pitiful to see how some of the upper class citizens treated others. Not all of them were the stereotypical rich folk society pinned them out to be, but you know how a few bad apples spoil the bunch.

Something, or rather someone, caught his attention. Far across from where they were sitting, one of the tenders was whispering something to the man he was serving. To anyone, this would just be brushed off; people have a right to talk in whatever volume they'd like. But to the trained eye, you could see that quick look of fear on the man's face before it got covered with disappointment. Bruce continued to watch their lips, catching on to what the man was saying.

_What do you mean you don't have it_ was the words Bruce got. The man turned around and looked at another guy at a table behind him. That man mouthed the word 'well' while the other, who got the initial message, shook his head no.

A bad feeling rose from the pit of Bruce's stomach and he glanced around to see if anyone else was acting strange. This kind of thing was bad at these kind of events.

Dick sensed his foster father's tension and looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" he questioned, noticing how Bruce was scanning the crowd. He copied his actions and glanced around.

"Nothing yet, just keep an eye out." That was Batman talking, telling Dick to be ready for anything.

The evening continued on into the late night with no signs of immediate danger or further acts of suspicious activity. Bruce had kept a target on the three men from earlier, and made sure Dick was near him rather than going off and doing who knows what. He was currently spying on the two guys who seemed to just be having a conversation with some guests. They were doing that lately; small talk, to just about everyone, as if interrogating.

They shook their heads, holding smiles as to escape the talk with the man and woman, and started over towards Bruce. Said billionaire fixed his gaze and pretended to be distracted. That's when Dick tugged on his sleeve.

"Bruce, they're serving cupcakes now!" he practically yelled and dashed off. Bruce was about to growl at him for disobeying, before realizing that the boy had offered them an escape from an interrogation of the two men.

Said men had stopped their approach when Dick dashed off and watched as Bruce followed after him. One looked away, pretending to not care, while the other discreetly followed them with his gaze.

Bruce caught up with Dick at the desserts table, seeing how the boy was eyeing the cupcakes in a decision to which one he would devour.

"Good job." He whispered in Dick's ear, earning a sideways grin from him. He picked up a cupcake and took a huge bite. After chewing a bit, his eyebrow furrowed at the taste and texture. It was soggy, like a liquid cupcake.

"Uck, this thing tastes nasty." He mumbled with a full mouth. He tried swallowing some of it so he could talk better. Bruce took the cupcake from his hand and analyzed it.

"Bruce!" A voice announced to the right of said billionaire. Bruce glanced over and smiled, recognizing the man as one of his clients.

"Devin, how are you doing?" he replied.

"Oh, just perfect. How's the party going for you two?" he asked with a cheery tone. His eyes noticed the cupcake in Bruce's hands. "Oh, how are you liking those cupcakes? I believe that's the special batch my wife made."

"What are in these cupcakes?" Bruce questioned.

"Alcohol."

The instant Dick heard the word, he spit out the contents of his mouth onto the floor, some saliva following afterwards. Bruce looked down at him with wide eyes before transferring the look over to his friend.

"He didn't eat it did he?" Devin asked with growing concern.

A distant away, the two guys were observing the scene, watching how the young ward, Dick Grayson, clutched his stomach after spitting out what looked to be remains of a dessert. The man next to that billionaire playboy was apologizing, Devin Baxter was his name, a client of Bruce Wayne.

They distinctively heard the boy complain about his stomach and witnessed Bruce leading him off and out the door. The two men glanced at each other before nodding.

* * *

**YOUNG JUSTICE: IN TIME**

**BY MARSHMELLOW CAT**

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**Hey everyone! Another story for you to read. Don't worry, I'm still updating Seeing Red as I do every week, but this idea had been waiting long enough, so I decided to post it. I would say this story will be Robin-centric, mainly because the team **_**does **_**appear, but doesn't play a large role.**

**As always with my stories, chapter 2 will be posted immediately after this one, so don't let me waste your time.**

**Happy New Year everyone!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Bruce questioned as he glanced every so often over at Dick while driving both of them home. It was a great escape from the charity event, although, he knew it wasn't Dick's intention to get sick on that cupcake.

"I told you I'm fine, just a bit queasy is all." True, but it wasn't the whole truth. To be honest, he did feel queasy, but his stomach also hurt too. Like cramps. It wasn't enough to have him bending over and moaning from the pain, but the knot inside his gut did have his mentor's attention.

"When we get home, you're going straight to bed." Bruce announced. Dick was silent for a moment, looking out the window as a few flurries flew in the wind.

"You're going out on patrol, aren't you?"

"You're not coming, you're sick. You'll only endanger yourself if you try to coax your illness." He didn't give Dick an option. Either they spend all night arguing about it or Dick complied and went to bed. A twang of pain erupted from his stomach and the nausea returned.

"Fine, I'll go to bed." Dick succumbed. A bed sounded really good at the moment. Besides, it was late, and he had school tomorrow morning. He closed his eyes to try and ease the pain and nausea away, finding it relaxing to keep them closed too. He didn't even remember arriving at the manor, or Bruce carrying him up into his room. The next thing he was conscious about was his guardian tucking him into bed before quietly shutting the door. He didn't bother opening his eyes, they were kind of glued shut at the moment, so instead he listened to Bruce and Alfred's soft voices disappear down the hall. No doubt the man was informing the elder of what transpired.

Dick let his mind wander as he drifted off into sleep, the nausea subsiding and the pain disappearing.

* * *

5:29 am turned over to 5:30 am as the alarm on the night stand went off, a radio wakeup call.

"Good morning Gotham, its 5:30 in the morning and the weather is looking sunny for today with a 80% chance of snow showers later on into the night." The man spoke through, soon to be followed by a song, to which never played since Dick had already turned it off. He yawned, and tapped his head, noting how there was no headache.

A big smile grew on his face. "No hangover, and nausea's gone." He cheered, jumping out of bed and walking over to his bathroom. After his shower, he opened the closed door with only a towel wrapped around his waist as he got his uniform and laid it out on the bed. Soon he was dressed and heading down stairs for Alfred's breakfast.

* * *

The school bell rang and all the students of Gotham Academy gathered themselves in their scheduled classes. Dick had history first, so the class didn't exactly fly by as fast as he'd want it to. But soon the bell rang again and Dick and his classmates exited the room. He grabbed his books from his locker, and swung his bag over his shoulder. Closing the metal door, he walked down the hall towards Barbara who was fiddling around in her locker.

"Hey, Babs." He greeted, earning a smile from her as she greeted him.

"Hey, how was that charity event last night?" she asked. Dick had told her about it yesterday, well, mostly about how much he was going to dread it.

"The cupcakes were evil." He stated simply.

"Huh?" Barbara sent a questioning glance at him while closing her locker door.

"I'll tell you more about it at lunch." He said, someone in his peripheral catching his attention. It was Artemis, she was huddled in a circle with some of her friends, Bette being one of them. There was a rumor going around that she had a crush on him.

Barbara followed his gaze and rolled her eyes. "Artemis again?" she groaned, feeling a bit jealous at how Dick had been paying a little too much attention on the girl.

Dick looked at her with faked surprise, "No, Bette. Does she have a crush on me?" he questioned, changing the subject as the two began to walk.

"I don't know, I don't talk to her."

"Yeah, but I heard there was a rumor—"

"I'm going to spread a rumor that you have a crush on Artemis." That really got Dick's attention.

"What!?" It was true Dick had been keeping an eye on Artemis, but out of the sole reason that they were both secretly heroes and she was part of their Team. And she still didn't recognize him, it was hilarious.

"I do **not** have a crush on the new girl." He defended, clutching his books to his chest as they walked past Artemis and her group of friends.

"She's not really the _new girl _anymore, and yeah you do. I see you watching her all the time." Barbara argued.

"I know her and she just doesn't recognize me. It's kind of weird, you know." It was more funny than weird to Dick.

"I guess." Barbara agreed. Dick was having difficulty finding out if Barbara took the bait or not. He really didn't need a rumor going around that he loved Artemis.

"Why do you want to know if Bette has a crush on you?" she asked. Dick was happy she let the whole thing go.

"I don't want her stalking me."

"She's not going to stalk you."

"Yeah she will. I know a stalker when I see one, and she's a stalker."

"You're full of yourself." Just as Barbara finished, the bell rang and her eyes grew with fear. "Oh no, I'm going to be late!" She gasped out before bolting down the hall. "See ya Dick, meet ya at lunch!"

He continued walking down the hall, watching his friend rushed off to get to her class. He didn't rush, though, there was no need to. He had math next and the teacher favored him, wouldn't mind if he was late one time out of the whole semester.

An older boy ran into, bumping his shoulder as he ran ahead. Dick was about to glare up at him, but noticed how he was running a bit too fast for any ordinary human. Something out of his peripheral caught his attention. He turned to look at a girl who was also going the same speed, but… it looked like she was walking, and someone had just sped up a video. His eyes grew wide as he glanced around him. They all were doing that.

"What the—"

Dick stood in the middle of the hall, the figures dashing past him as if some crazed time lapse in a movie. His eyes darted to and fro, an explanation escaping him as he stood still hoping none of these kids would run him over.

Then, all of a sudden, it stopped. He was alone in the hall now, all of the blurs vanishing in the blink of an eye. He stared down the hall, his books clutched to his chest as he was trying to figure out what just happened.

The bell rang, and the doors to the classrooms opened, students pouring out.

"What!? Class is over, but it didn't even start!" as soon as the words passed his lips, he brought his left hand up to his face and looked at his watch. 1:20 pm. His eyes couldn't enlarge any bigger than they already were. It was ten in the morning last time he checked.

He ran down the hall, avoiding the other students like a pro until he reached his math class. When he skid to a halt in the doorway, the teacher, who was organizing papers on her desk, glanced up at him with shock. The classroom was empty.

"Richard, there you are." She said, with relief. "What happened to you, you weren't in class this morning."

"What time is it?" he asked, his voice hinting at concern. The teacher looked taken back by his question and glanced up at the clock off to the left above her head. He too looked up.

"It's almost 1:30. Richard, are you okay? You're looking a bit pale." She announced. She placed the papers down on her desk and approached him, worry written all over her face.

"I… I have to go!" he stumbled with his words and darted off, dropping his books in the doorway without a second thought. The teacher was dumbfounded by his actions, bending down to pick them up and calling after him.

He didn't pay any attention to her, though he did feel sorry for his rude behavior. He needed to tell Bruce what happened. A whole afternoon running by you like that is NOT normal.

He shoved his hand in his bag and took out his cell phone, preparing to call Alfred. Someone bumped into him, the force hard enough so that he dropped his phone. The people around him were beginning to blur, and Dick started to panic.

"No, no, no, no, it's not happening again!" he whispered to himself. He reached his hand out to pick up his phone, but one of the blurs ran into it, a heart pounding burn climbing up his arm from his wrist. He cried out from the pain, retracting his arm to his chest where the other clutched it. Someone ran into his shoulder, causing pain to strike up there before another shoved him straight to the ground. He quickly covered his face, the blurs getting faster, colors fading into each other.

He got up and crawled to the side of the hall with haste, all care for his phone leaving him. He slammed his back into the lockers and sat there clutching his hand as the figures around him got faster and faster. It was becoming sickening, everything turning into streams of light. He closed his eyes and started to slow his breaths. He counted the seconds, hoping they were just that.

Then, it all stopped.

He still had his eyes closed, noting how the sounds and air around him were silenced. He opened them, his right arm still clutched to his chest. The hall was empty… again. But it was different this time.

His eyes darted towards his watch, reading the hands carefully.

11:52 pm

He didn't bother stopping himself from screaming. No one was in the school because it was nearly midnight and the school was closed!

The first thing that came to his mind was Alfred. He was supposed to come pick him up right after class, at 2:30. Alfred would be so worried about him right now; BRUCE would be freaking out!

Dick stood up in no time and ran down the hall towards his locker. He pulled out his winter coat, put it on, and dashed off to the double doors. Upon reaching them, however, he found them to be locked. Figures. He quickly unlocked the doors and dashed out.

His feet left footprints in the snow as he ran down the walkway. Glancing in the parking lot, he found it empty. Not a surprise to him though, but there was no sign of Bruce's car.

He glanced up, continuing his run. The sky was as dark as it could ever be in Gotham with a new moon, stars glittering away as little to no clouds were in sight. His breath came out as hot steam each time he exhaled, the cold wind nipping away the warmth in his face. It was supposed to be below freezing tonight. And he had lost his phone.

He stuck to the sidewalk, making sure to keep his eyes open in case anything happened. Being alone out at midnight wasn't entirely the smartest for a Gothamite. And being Dick Grayson, made it ten times worse. It would at least take him a half an hour, possibly forty five minutes before he'd make it to the manor. He prayed he wouldn't freeze to death by then. He swallowed hard when snow began to fall in large clumps.

* * *

The doorbell echoed throughout the lobby of the manor, followed by a couple knocks before Alfred made his way over to answer it. He peered out the peep hole, his face morphing from sadness to absolute shock as he saw who it was. Within a second he opened the door, grabbed the boy, and brought him in.

"Master Dick!" he yelled, shoving the shivering kid into the warmth of the manor before closing the door to the bitter winter weather. He immediately helped him removed his snow infested coat and bag. He was both relieved and terrified.

"Where have you been!? I came to pick you up this afternoon, but you weren't there. Master Bruce attempted to call you, but we couldn't get an answer! You don't understand how scared we were for you!" he announced with a grandfather's heart. He placed Dick's hands in his own and nearly pulled them away from how cold they were.

"You're freezing!" He placed a hand on Dick's back and led him off to the living room.

"Wwwwhere'sssssss Brrrrrrruce?" Dick asked through chatter teeth. He didn't know how to explain things, nor did he feel like it because all he wanted to do was cuddle up with some blankets and sleep.

"Out looking for you." Alfred replied, leading him through the manor and over to the living on the ground floor. 'Out' meant he was Batman, and 'looking for you' meant he was probably knocking a few thug heads together. "I'll call him back," Alfred said, sitting Dick down on the sofa before leaving to fetch some tea and blankets.

Dick shivered there, still clutching his hand as he stared off at the carpet. He looked like he was in shock.

_What… happened to me?_

* * *

Bruce sat on the coach beside Dick, one arm draped around him holding him close. Alfred was wrapping up his wrist, it being sprained from the strange event Dick had encountered at school. He was covered in three layers of blankets, a cup of hot, herbal tea sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

"I don't know what happened." Dick was explaining, his voice regaining its strength now that he wasn't shivering like crazy anymore. "I was just in the hall heading to class, and the next thing I knew, everyone turned into a time lapse. It went from ten in the morning to one in the afternoon in just seconds!" He informed them. "And then it happened again! But this time…" his voice fell off. He didn't have to explain the rest.

"It was so not asterous." Dick finished, Alfred patting his arm as he finished bandaging it. Dick brought it up close to his chest.

"What did the people around you look like?" Bruce questioned, wanting nothing more than to stop this from happening again.

"I don't know," Dick replied, his voice cracking a bit. It hurt from breathing in the cold air during his run all the way back home. Alfred picked up the cup of tea and handed it to him. Dick took it with a smile and sipped. "Everyone just looked like blurs. Kind of like how Flash and Kid Flash are when they're running, except… faster." He explained.

"Hours within seconds. How is that possible?" Their butler inquired.

"No one saw you? Did anyone seem to notice you _not _moving?" Bruce questioned.

"No," Dick breathed out, "At least I don't think." He corrected. "There was really no way of telling." He paused in thought before looking up at Bruce. "Did anyone notice me gone?"

"Barbara called, as did the principle. He said your math teacher last saw you and that you looked scared." His guardian answered back.

"Yeah, that was after the first occurrence. I was going to call Alfred and tell you about it before the second time lapse happened. And then I lost my phone in the crowd and got _this_." He finished while lifting up his sprained wrist.

Bruce sighed, he had nothing, Dick had nothing, and the boy was in danger of this anomaly happening again. What if it got worse? Hours to days, days to weeks, weeks to months… months to years…

He was right, this was so not asterous.

He stood up, "I'm heading down to continue my research on the two men from yesterday."

"You think they're responsible?" Dick questioned, following Bruce.

"I have my suspicions, but what part they play and how they're involved exactly still eludes me." He stopped and turned around, looking down at Dick.

"Get some sleep." He said before disappearing through the doorway.

Dick glared at the floor. He did not feel tired at all. In fact, he felt like it was still eight in the morning. Alfred didn't allow him to start complaining as he was lead up to his room. When their butler left, he plopped down on his bed face first before rolling over onto his back.

That pain in his stomach had suddenly returned and he cringe from its unpleasant visit. He figured he would just take a cat nap before waking up extra, extra early to do some exercise.

A punching bag sounded really good at the moment.


	3. Chapter 3

Gotham City  
Wayne Manor; 3:06 EST  
Thursday

Rhythmic echoes sounded down the hall from the gym as Dick swung his gloved hands into the punching bag. He had just woken up from his cat nap, sure that it was, in fact, a cat nap and not time zipping by him again as he slept.

He punched the red bag with his right hand, then followed through with his left, before finishing his imaginary target off with a kick. His breathes were heavy from the work out; boxer gloves taken off his hands so they could rest on his knees.

With a final, deep breath, he waltzed over to the bench, sat down and took three whole gulps of water out of his water bottle. He picked up his wrist watch he had laying on the bench and checked the time. The thing was going to be his best friend until they figured out how to stop whatever was going on.

3:08 am it read. He had been punching that bag for at least an hour.

Batman was out on patrol, or hunting someone down, since Dick had checked the Batcave when he woke up. Alfred was somewhere in the manor cleaning, more than likely still in the west wing since he heard the vacuum over there.

He still had plenty of time to himself to do whatever he wanted, but what he wanted to do most of all was beat up some Gotham bad guys. This was the second night Bruce had left without him and frankly he couldn't put up with it any longer. So, he took a shower and then ventured down to the Batcave. He changed into his Robin uniform—minus the mask—but didn't bother going anywhere because, according to the monitor, Batman was coming back really soon. He just liked the feeling of his Kevlar on. He didn't get to wear it all of yesterday.

The Batmobile appeared from the tunnel and shrieked to a halt, the top half opening up. Batman jumped out, and the lid closed. Upon approaching the computer, he sensed someone was sitting in his chair, but didn't need to see who it was to know.

"Dick?" he said as he removed his cowl. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore." Dick replied. Granted, Bruce figured the boy's sleep pattern would get messed up a bit since he technically missed about fifteen hours of yesterday.

Dick moved a bit in the chair, his hand going to his abdomen with a slight twitch in the facial features.

"What's wrong?" Bruce inquired.

"My stomach just hurts." Dick answered.

"Have you eaten at all since breakfast?" Dick shook his head no.

"Come on," Bruce swiveled the chair around and motioned his hand towards the cave's exit. Dick sighed. If he had to go back upstairs, that meant he had to remove his uniform. And he had just put it on.

He resisted the urge to growl. He couldn't be Robin, his stomach hurt, he lost fifteen hours the other day, couldn't sleep, was spastic about the time, and worst of all, Barbara thought he loved Artemis!

The day was not whelming, not whelming at all.

* * *

Gotham City  
Gotham Academy; 10:24 EST  
Thursday

The bell rang, telling the students to hurry to class before a tardy was distributed. It was study hall for Dick, the class he had right before lunch. So far, no time anomalies happened, but that didn't keep the young acrobat from checking his watch every so often. He reminded himself of that white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

The last bit of students hurried into the class room before the teacher, Mr. Gurder, closed the door. Dick leaned over and grabbed a book out of his bag, relaxed far down in his seat. As he opened it up to his bookmark, he heard giggling behind him. Upon twisting his head around, he saw Bette and a couple of her dumb friends looking at him with smiles. When Bette's eyes met his, she blushed and looked away.

Dick looked off to the front of the class, sighing mentally and slouching further in his desk.

_It's true…_ he whined in his head. _I should have never invited her to my birthday party._

He looked down at his book, hoping to pass the time with a good story and get this whole embarrassing crush out of his head. Not a sentence in, the bell rang. Dick whipped his head up, confusion written all over his face. The students were filing out of the room.

Dick quickly looked at his watch, seeing how it was 11:40 am. It happened again.

Dick sat down at their lunch table with Barbara sitting down across from him. She was studying him like a newly found mammal. When Dick glanced up from his food, he took a step back.

"What?" he asked.

"Where were you the other day, you just disappeared." She stated, sounding genuinely concerned, and looking as if she was on the verge of tears. "I tried calling the manor, but Alfred said you didn't come home after school. I thought you got kidnapped!" she exclaimed.

Whatever was happening, he wanted to know just as much as she did. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell her anything, Batman's orders. Honestly, he could trust Barbara, and so could Bruce. But it wasn't about trust, it was about safety for both them and the people they told.

"I—" Dick paused for a split second. "I don't know, I remember going to the bathroom and then… I guess I passed out or something."

"You passed out?" she repeated with more seriousness than Dick had. He hated lying to her.

"The doctor said it was just a concussion, nothing to worry about." He reasoned.

"How did you get a concussion?"

"I hit my head a few days back while working out. It happens, Barbara."

"It only happens because you're so reckless." She retorted, forking her food a bit, but not touching it. Suddenly, Bette was beside their table, earning the attention of both Barbara and Dick.

"Hey, Barbara." She greeted, "I was just wondering if you had done that Cultural Diversity homework. I was busy all day yesterday with my father and was wondering if you could—"

Barbara shook her head yes, but out of knowing what the girl wanted. Dick looked down at his food, avoiding any eye contact with Bette or her friends at their table across the café.

"I would but, I don't have it on me and my backpack's in my locker." She replied with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"Oh no, that's quite—" Bette was about to say before Dick chimed in, even though he really didn't want to.

"I have mine on me. If you… want to borrow it." He said, already pulling the paper out of his bag and handing it to Bette. She smiled and thanked him, and Dick knew she was trying to hide a blush. When she grabbed the paper, her hand touched Dick's and the blush burst forward on her cheeks. She quickly said bye to both of them and returned to her lunch table. Barbara followed her with a huge smile on her face.

"Wow, that girl is a mess!" she stated before looking over at Dick who was now paying more attention to his food than ever before. "She really does have a crush on you."

"Yeah, and she's going to stalk me." Dick mumbled before taking a bite from his mashed potatoes.

"She's not going to stalk you." Barbara commented tiredly.

"Yes she is."

"No she's not, Dick."

"Do you know what happened to Dillan, her last boyfriend?"

"What?" she asked, figuring to hear him out, but just for a bit.

"He was in the locker room changing when she "accidentally" stumbled in claiming to have been placed in the boy's gym class instead of the girl's."

Babs' fingers were on her temples now, "Yeah, the schedule got messed up big time, but it was only a rumor of a whisper of a _conjecture_ that that happened." She argued with him.

"And he just so happens to break up with her the very next day." Dick defended his information.

"You're so paranoid."

"Blame Bruce." Dick stated, returning to his meal before it was time to go. He was kind of happy that the whole Bette ordeal distracted Barbara from her worry about his disappearance the other day. He promised one day he'd tell her everything he could, but today was not that day.

* * *

Happy Harbor  
Mount Justice; 15:32 EST  
Thursday

Recognized. Robin B01

After the zeta tubes rematerialized the Boy Wonder into the cave, he began his trek over to the lounge. Dick was dressed in his civvies, his tight jeans with a black jacket over a green hoodie, all the while sporting his dark sunglasses.

Upon reaching the lounge, he was greeted with M'gann, Superboy, and Zatanna, all watching a movie. All of them had their backs to him, his presence unnoticed. At least to those without telepathic abilities.

M'gann turned around after sensing his presence and jumped up with glee.

"Robin!" she greeted, alerting the others as well. Floating over the sofa, she landed beside him and hugged him. Robin was definitely feeling the aster, but was somewhat confused from the affection. He hugged her back, and smiled awkwardly, glancing over at Zatanna in doing so.

"Uh, thanks. Hehe, what's with the hugs all of a sudden?" he asked, right after getting a hug from Zatanna. His first thought was that it was a girl thing, because Conner didn't look like he was getting off the couch any time soon.

"We got a call yesterday from Batman. He came looking for you. Is everything alright?" the Martian inquired while holding her hands together out in front of her.

"Yeah, what happened?" Conner chimed in with one arm slugged over the sofa's back.

"THAT, well, um," Rob started ruffling the back of his hair. "I… can't… really tell you. The whole civvies ordeal, ID thing, Batman's orders… that kind of stuff." He explained.

"But everything's alright, right?" Zatanna asked for reassurance.

"Yeah," he replied with a smile.

_Hopefully_ he thought. M'gann looked at him with sadness, hearing its projection.

Recognized. Kid Flash B03

The computer announced the arrival of everybody's favorite speedster right before announcing their resident archer.

Recognized. Artemis B06

In a few seconds, a blurry figure appeared in the lounge. Wally gazed at the others with a pleading face.

"Have you guys heard anything from—" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Robin next to Zatanna and M'gann. "Rob! You're alive!" He zipped over and punched him in the arm. "Dude, what happened yesterday? Bats came in and—"

"He can't talk about it, secret ID stuff." Conner interrupted from his position on the couch.

"Uh huh." Wally replied with narrowed eyes, hands on his hips. "Well that sucks. Let's go out for ice cream! Me and Robin only. See ya!" Kid said before waving good bye, grabbing Robin's hand and dashing out of the room leaving the others in the dust of confusion.

Kid slowed to a normal run, at least as fast as Robin could run, as they made their way down the hall. On their way, they met Artemis.

"Hey, blonde." Kid greeted, neither of them stopping to say anything else. Artemis stood in the hall, awkwardly.

"Hi...?" she said as they ran away.

* * *

Happy Harbor  
Billy's Ice Cream Parlor; 15:49 EST  
Thursday

Dick and Wally were sitting alone on one of the wooden, octagon-shaped tables outside of the ice cream shop. Each of them had ice cream, Wally, a chocolate ice cream cone piled high, while Dick just had a small bowl of strawberry with chocolate syrup.

"So, what happened yesterday?" Wally began. The reason why they were out here was to get far enough away from Conner so that he wouldn't hear anything Dick couldn't tell. And he wanted to hear everything.

"Something weird is going on. Time is messing up around me!" Dick began to explain. Wally was licking his ice cream when he stopped mid-lick and gave Dick a weird look.

"Huh?"

"Yesterday, I was in class. It was eight in the morning when all of the sudden, time skips, and its one thirty in the afternoon." Dick continued. "Then it happens again and the next thing I know its midnight!"

"So that's why Batman came to the cave asking if we had heard from you." Wally concluded. Then his eyes widened. "Dude, Bruce must have been freaking out!"

Dick still had no idea how his friend didn't connect the two. It was obvious, wasn't it? He guessed the billionaire playboy act actually worked on some people. But Dick wasn't going to tell him; that was his job to figure out.

"Both he and Alfred. But the thing is, it happened again, _today_. Study hall. The bell rings, I sit down, seconds later, it rings again and the class is over!" Dick shrugged before laying his hands down on the table.

"That's one awesome study hall!" Wally exclaimed happily, feeling that Dick was lucky.

"We have no idea how to predict when it'll happen again." As Dick said this, he glanced down at his watch.

"Well… Batman's on the case, right. He'll figure it out." Wally reassured his best friend.

"Yeah, but we don't know how much time we have before—"

Dick opened his eyes. Everything was dark. And he was laying down. On a bed.

He sat up, eyes wider than dinner plates as he glanced around. He was in his room laying in his bed with his school uniform on.

"What?" he said out loud to no one but himself. Quickly, he glanced at his alarm clock. 2:00 am.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Not again!" he said, jumping out of bed and dashing out the door. He ran down the hall screaming for Alfred and Bruce. Once he got to the main lobby, he stopped and listened. A sound echoed off in the distance. It sounded like a vacuum… in the west wing.

Dick looked down at himself, he was wearing his school uniform… and Alfred was vacuuming in the west wing… and it was two in the morning… just like last night…

He shook his head and ran over to the study. Pulling a book out of the bookcase, the whole thing opened up to a secret stairway. He ran down and glanced around.

"Bruce?!" he called, seeing the cave empty and the Batmobile gone. He decided to test something, and waited in the chair at the computer for an hour. Just as he thought, the Batmobile pulled in and Batman jumped out. Dick didn't turn the chair around as he heard his mentor approach.

"Dick?" Batman said as he removed his cowl. "What are you doing up?"

Dick swiveled the chair around and looked at him. "I… couldn't… sleep anymore." He replied, getting a major sense of déjà vu. His stomach started hurting again and he moved his hand to massage it. Bruce noticed something off.

"What's wrong?" Bruce inquired.

Dick looked down at the floor, his eyes wide. "My… stomach just hurts."

"Have you eaten at all since—"

"Since breakfast?" Dick jumped in. "No."

Bruce motioned his hand towards the cave's exit. "Come on."

Dick stared forward as the sense of déjà vu only strengthened.

_You've gotta be kidding me…_ he groaned mentally.


	4. Chapter 4

Gotham City  
Gotham Academy; 10:24 EST  
Thursday

The bell rang, announcing to the students to hobble on over to class before late passes were to be given out. Dick walked into his study hall, having a sense of dread that he knew exactly what was going to happen, but had secretly wished it was all but a really weird dream.

He sat down in his chair and glanced down at his bag, seeing that book laying within the fabric. He didn't take it out though. The teacher, Mr. Gurder, walked in and sat down at his desk before informing every one of the basic rules of study hall. No talking—well for him it was to keep it at a low roar—no goofing around, and no eating or drinking.

Dick heard giggling behind him and his eyes closed. His guess was that it was Bette and her friends. Load and behold, when he turned around to see, it was indeed Bette and her friends whispering to each other and glancing at him. When Bette's eyes met with his she blushed and turned away.

Dick faced the front of the classroom, his jaw rested in his left hand as his elbow was supported by the desk. He glared at the clock above the teacher's head.

_Any minute now…_

Just as he thought, the minute hand started spinning faster, flying past the 1, and then the 3 and 4. It stopped a little before the 8 and the bell rang. The students filed out of the classroom, leaving Dick to sit in his chair. He was the only one left, besides the teacher at least.

Mr. Gurder's head poked up to still see him there.

"Mr. Grayson, the bell rang."

"I know it did." Dick replied politely, getting up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. Lunch was next, and he could only assume what the topic with Barbara was going to be.

* * *

Dick sat down at the lunch table with Barbara and immediately put his hands up in surrender.

"I know what you're going to say, and I'm sorry for worrying you." He started. He didn't need to look up to know she was studying him and forking her food.

"What happened to you yesterday, you just disappeared." She stated, sounding genuinely concerned, and looking as if she was on the verge of tears. "I tried calling the manor—"

"I know, I know, I disappeared. I wish I could tell you, but I can't. I don't know what's going on—well, okay, I do _now_, but I don't know how to stop it." Dick tried explaining.

"Stop what?" Barbara was a little confused.

"It's nothing, I'm fine." Barbara was about to further the conversation before Bette showed up.

"Hey, Barbara." She greeted, a bit bashfully though. It was strange for her character. "I was just wondering if you had done that Cultural Diversity homework. I was busy all day yesterday with my father and was wondering if you could—"

"I would but, I—"

"I have it." Dick interrupted as he held out his homework. "You can borrow mine, just give it back whenever you can. No biggie." He told her. Bette whispered a thank you and reached out to take the paper. When she grabbed the paper, their hands touched and she started blushing. Quickly, she rushed back to her lunch table.

Barbara watched with shock, "Does she—she _does_ have a crush on you."

"Yup," Dick simply replied, glaring down at his plate and playing with his food.

"Wow…"

"And she's going to stalk me." Dick added.

"She's not going to stalk you." They began their friendly argue… again.

"Yes she is, Barbara. Do I need to retell the story of Dillan?" He was looking up at her with a fisted fork on the table and a half-smile glare.

"The schedule got messed up big time, yea, but the rest of it was only a rumor of a whisper of a—"

"_Conjecture_, I know." Dick finished for her. Now Barbara sensed something wrong.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I've got major déjà vu." He stated dryly, flopping back in his seat and crossing his arms.

* * *

Happy Harbor  
Mount Justice; 15:32 EST  
Thursday

Recognized. Robin B01

The Boy Wonder materialized into the mission room before waltzing over into the lounge. He glanced around, seeing how M'gann, Conner, and Zatanna were watching their movie.

M'gann turned her head around and jumped up.

"Robin!" she exclaimed, floating over the couch, landing beside him, and giving him a hug. Zatanna did the same.

"I know what you're all going to say, don't worry about what happened the other day. Batman and I are going to figure something out." He informed them quickly. M'gann looked at him sadly, hearing a projection of his thoughts.

"What did happen?" Conner inquired, one arm slugged over the back of the sofa.

"Can't tell you, secret ID thing." Robin replied.

"Oh."

Recognized. Kid Flash B03

Recognized. Artemis B06

_Three… two… one…_ Robin counted down before Kid would show up. As promised, a gust of wind entered the lounge and Wally dressed in his civvies skid to a halt.

"Have you guys heard anything from—" He stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Robin standing next to Zatanna and M'gann. "Rob! You're alive!"

"Yea, yea, yea. Look, Wally, I really need to—" Dick tried to tell him what was going on.

Wally zipped over beside him and punched his arm. "Dude, what happened yesterday? Bats came in and—"

"I know he did, I—" Dick tried again before Conner chimed in.

"He can't talk about it, secret ID stuff."

"Uh huh." Wally replied with narrowed eyes, hands on his hips.

"Wally, let's go get ice cream." Robin suggested, seemingly stressed. Which was really weird to witness for all of them.

"I was just about to suggest that!" Wally stated before grabbing his hand, waving goodbye to the others and dashing out. They passed Artemis on the way, and Wally greeted Artemis without stopping in his tracks.

Artemis stood in the hall awkwardly, "Hi…?" she said as they ran away.

* * *

Happy Harbor  
Billy's Ice Cream Parlor; 15:49 EST  
Thursday

"Wally, you have to help me! The time thing is happening again, but worse! What happened yesterday, is happening again _today_. Today is yesterday! Today is supposed to be Friday!" Dick exclaimed. Wally was licking down a chocolate cone piled high. Dick didn't buy himself any ice cream this time.

"Today's Thursday." Wally corrected.

"And so was yesterday!"

"Yesterday was Wednesday, dude."

"Wally, it's repeating. It's déjà vu. I'm experiencing the exact same thing today as I did yesterday. Study hall was the same. Lunch was the same. This conversation we're having, we already had it. The only difference is that we're not saying the same thing and it got cut short because everything restarted." Dick complained.

"Okay, wait." Wally put his hand out to stop his friend. "What exactly is going on, and where were you yesterday?"

"Time is screwing up big time, Wally. And I don't think I have a lot of time to explain before everything restarts a—"

* * *

"—gain." Dick finished his sentence as he opened his eyes to his dark room. He leaned up in his bed and whipped his head over to face his alarm clock.

2:00 am

"RAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" he screamed as he covered his eyes with both hands.

* * *

The Batmobile pulled in and stopped, Batman jumped out and glanced up. Dick was leaning over the side of the platform looking down at him. He didn't look happy.

"It's happening again!" he hollered down.

* * *

The clock zipped through the digits before stopping before the eight and the bell rang. The students filed out of the classroom leaving Dick alone in his desk with the teacher.

The teacher glanced up at his student. "Mr. Grayson, the bell rang."

"I know." Dick replied, a bit of sadness hinted in his tone.

* * *

"What happened to you the other day, you just disappeared." Barbara went on. "I tried calling you, but Alfred said you weren't there. And what are you…?" she stopped as she noticed Dick take out his Cultural Diversity homework.

"Bette's gonna ask for your homework, but you don't have yours, so I'm gonna give her mine." Dick answered nonchalantly.

"What are you talking about?" she questioned, feeling really dumbfounded.

"Hey, Barbara." Bette greeted suddenly.

"She doesn't have hers, so here's mine." Dick said quickly before Bette could continue her sentence.

Barbara and Bette both looked at him with surprise.

* * *

Recognized. Robin B02

Robin materialized into the cave, mouthing what the automated voice was. He stopped there, holding his weight on his left hip while tapping his foot. Soon the automated voice started up again announcing his friends.

Wally was about to zip over to the lounge when he saw Dick standing right in front of him. Artemis materialized in next.

"We need to get ice cream." Dick stated in a deep and serious tone, grabbing Wally's hand and heading out.

* * *

Wally was devouring his ice cream cone while Dick clutching the table with both hands.

"I'm stuck in a time loop! I've had this day three times already!" he exclaimed, not caring if he was attracting the attention of others around them.

"Wally, pleeeease! I think I'm going to lose my mind." He said while grabbing his skin around his eyes and pulling it down, looking like a Chinese person.

"Okay, you need to calm down a bit, you're seriously out of character and it's scaring me."

* * *

Alfred was cooking breakfast for Dick, it being six in the morning. He was focused on the food cooking in the pan when he looked up at a sound. Glancing out the kitchen doorway, he heard screaming, then saw Dick run by—still screaming—and then disappeared, his screams echoing through the halls.

* * *

Barbara continued to go off about how she was worried for him the other day, and wondering where he was, and what happened, before she noticed Dick not even looking at her as he ate his meal.

"Are you even paying attention to me?" she questioned. Dick simply shook his head no, continuing to devour his lunch.

* * *

Recognized. Robin B01

"I'm chalant! I am sooooooo chalant!" Dick screamed into the cave as he materialized in.

* * *

Wally was starting to get ice cream all over his face as he licked it to death while Dick just watched him.

"Wally."

"Yeah?"

"It's winter, why are we getting ice cream?" he questioned. Wally froze in his spot, the fact dawning on him as he glanced around.

"I… don't know…?"

* * *

Dick sat up in bed and sent a death glare over at his alarm clock.

2:00 am.

He started pounding on it with his fist.

* * *

The bell rang for the students to file into their classrooms. Dick sat down in his seat, took out his phone, turned on his game, and cranked the music volume way up. The game's music was the only thing anyone in the room could hear.

"Richard Grayson." Mr. Gurder stood up with a demanding voice. "Put your phone away, this is a study period!"

"It's okay, the bells gonna ring soon anyway." He said waving his hand without looking up from his phone.

* * *

Robin walked into the lounge with less than a happy face. M'gann sensed his presence and jumped up.

"Robin!" M'gann spoke up and started flying over to him before she was stopped by a hand. Robin's hand, which was held up in front of her before. He turned around, walked over to the fridge, took out a bottle of water and began gulping it down. By this time, Zatanna was beside M'gann and Conner was watching from the sofa.

When the bottle was empty, Robin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then suddenly, he snapped.

He screamed and slammed the plastic bottle down on the island until the thing was nothing more than the shape of a disc.

M'gann held both her hands up to her mouth, covering it, while Zatanna and Conner watched him in fear.

Recognized. Kid Flash B03

"No ice cream!" Robin yelled.

* * *

It was early morning and Batman had just gotten back. Now he was standing in front of the computer with Dick crying his heart out into his chest.

And he had no idea why…

* * *

Bette suddenly appeared next to Barbara at their lunch table.

"Hey, Barbara." She greeted, but something flew in front of her face and she stepped back with a slight gasp.

"HERE!" Dick yelled as he waved the paper in front of Bette's face.

* * *

Robin dragged Wally out of the lounge and down the hall, a big frown plastered on his face as his body shook a bit from stress. Artemis was walking their way and he stopped in front of her.

"Whatever Barbara told you, DON'T listen to her!" he ordered with a finger in Artemis' face. The blonde archer just looked at her teammate with saucers for eyes.

* * *

All the students sat down after the bell rang, but Dick suddenly stood up, earning the attention of everyone especially the teacher. He didn't say anything as he walked over to the window, opened it up, and just jumped out.

"Mr. Grayson?" the teacher piped up as some of the other students gasped. One of the boys from the first row ran over to the window and poked his head out.

"Dude! Rock on!" he cheered with a pumped fist.

* * *

M'gann, Conner, and Zatanna were sitting on the couch watching a movie when all of a sudden, Robin jumped in front of the TV.

"Hey, guys! Guess what?!" he then took off his glasses, a huge smile on his face. "I'm Dick Grayson, and Bruce Wayne is Batman! He's my foster father!"

The three looked at him with wide eyes and blank, shocked expressions.

* * *

Dick's alarm clock crashed through his bedroom window, falling down onto Bruce's Ferrari, the vehicle sounding off its alarm as its hood got smashed in.

* * *

Wally was licking his chocolate ice cream cone while Dick just stared at him, his head resting on his hand.

"You enjoying that ice cream?" he asked with an eerily calm tone.

"Yup." Wally replied, oblivious to his friend's strange vibe.

"Good, good." Dick said, staring at him with a blank expression. "I poisoned it."

Wally froze and spit out what he had in his mouth.

* * *

Bette took a deep breath, about to walk over to Dick and Barbara's lunch table to get a little closer to Dick. She got up and glanced over, her nervous expression dropping into one of pure horror as she witnessed Dick making out Barbara, the girl hanging inches off the floor.

Everyone in the café had stopped eating and started watching.

* * *

Gotham City  
Wayne Technologies; 8:30 EST  
Thursday

Bruce was sitting at his desk on the phone with Lucius discussing matters related to Batman when his phone beeped, alerting him to another call.

"Oh, hang on Lucius, I've got another call." He said before pressing a button.

"Hello?"

"Uh, Mr. Wayne, I'm so sorry to be calling during work hours, but… this is Principle Ainsley from Gotham Academy. I'm calling on behalf of Dick. He's didn't come in to school this morning and I just wanted to make sure if everything is alright since he disappeared yest—"

"What do you mean he's not in school?" Bruce questioned, standing up in his chair with one hand down on his desk. Just then, the doors to his office slid open and he was greeted with his secretary and Dick.

"Yeah, principle, I'm going to have to call you back." He said, staring down at Dick. The boy looked down at the ground, knowing all too well the effects of the glare.

"No, no, he's fine. He's right here with me, actually. Uh huh, yeah, mmm—bye bye!" Bruce hung up the phone and dismissed his secretary.

Once the doors slid shut, Bruce started.

"What are you doing out of school?" he said, holding in his anger knowing Dick _had_ to have had a reason.

"It's happening again." Dick said, emotionless.

Bruce's eyes widened, he didn't want him to be talking about the time lapse.

"The time lapse?"

"No, it's a time LOOP!" all emotion came pouring out now, and Bruce was a bit taken back. This wasn't Dick.

"I can't take it anymore, Bruce! The same thing happens over and over and **over** and OVER again! It's been Thursday for the past THREE WEEKS!" Tears were starting to fall down his cheeks as he fell down on his knees. Bruce moved out from behind his desk and rushed over to him, hands now securely on his sobbing boy's shoulders.

"Dick, Dick, Dick, calm down." He spoke while the boy kept on going with his rant.

"No matter what I say, it gets forgotten, no matter what I do, no one remembers a thing! And Wally's been eating that same ice cream cone fifteen times now!"

"Hey, hey! Bruce yelled this time, shaking his ward in order to get his to look up. He did. "You need to calm down. Take deep breathes, okay." He said with a fatherly tone. Dick nodded and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, and then exhaling.

"That's it." He encouraged, as he patted Dick's back a bit. "Now, I'm going to call Alfred, he's going to come pick you up, and you're going home to relax. You're stressed beyond limits, Dick." He stated, standing up and helping his son up as well. Dick just nodded his head, not saying anything as he began wiping away his tears. Bruce sat him down in one of the chairs in front of his desk while he pulled out his cell phone, dialing home.

He glanced at Dick, who was staring blankly at his desk, before looking out the window. He needed to figure out how this was happening… and soon.


	5. Chapter 5

The morning sun shined brightly on the manor as it rose above the skyscrapers littering Gotham City. The deep, velvet red curtains covering the windows in Dick's room captured most of the light trying to pass through, making the bedroom dim, but not dark.

A bundle of mass was curled in a fetal position and hidden under the quilts of the queen sized bed. It moved a bit, stretching out before turning into a ball again.

Dick was awake, but didn't bother opening his eyes. The room did seem a bit lighter than the past mornings, so he figured he must have slept in a bit. It was probably the only main difference he was going to experience the whole day.

_Another Thursday…_he groaned mentally. He remembered only a bit of what happened the Thursday before. He had skipped school and went to Wayne Tech where he practically had a nervous breakdown in front of Bruce. His guardian sent him home and Alfred pretty much took care of him until he feel asleep.

He was kind of happy that Bruce wouldn't be able to remember that breakdown of his. Knowing that Dick was on the verge of insanity, Bruce would more than likely have him temporarily exempted from Robin. And he didn't want that. He hadn't been able to be Robin since Tuesday evening before the charity fund. It felt like forever-ago.

Suddenly, his alarm went off.

"Good morning, Gotham! It's a lovely Friday morning today with clear blue skies and only 20% chance of precipitation."

Dick's head popped out from under the covers when he heard the word_ Friday_. He completely threw the covers off of him and stared down at his alarm clock.

"The highs today are an astounding 52 for January weather, with lows around 19 degrees…" The announcer continued, but Dick tuned him out.

"It's Friday?" he whispered to himself. "It's _Friday_?!" he half-shouted before jumping out of bed and looking down at himself. He was dressed in his pj's and not his school uniform. He bolted out the door and ran downstairs into the kitchen.

"Alfred!" He called out as he skid to a halt before the butler who was drying some of the cleaning dishes.

"Is it Friday? Is it actually Friday?!" he asked with a huge grin on his face.

"Yes it is, Master Dick. The last day of the week." Alfred answered him, placing the plate in the cupboard.

"Then it stopped…!" Dick breathed out in great relief. Alfred gave him a raised eyebrow. "It's finally Friday! The time loop stopped, Alfred! It's not Thursday anymore, it's Friday!" he cheered before raising his hands up into the air and giving a big woohoo.

Alfred smiled at him. "I'm glad to see you feeling so much better. You had me worried yesterday."

"Where's Bruce?" he questioned, still giddy for the bran new day.

"Down stairs," Alfred replied. "But I told him to take a break and join us for breakfast, or else."

"You threatened Bruce? With what?" Dick inquired. Alfred was about the only person, besides himself, who could actually persuade the Batman. But Alfred always did a better job at it than he.

Alfred just smiled back, "Run along and get ready for school. I'll have breakfast ready in about 20 minutes." And Dick did just that. He took his morning shower and put his Gotham Academy uniform on. After gelling his hair back, he rushed down stairs and sat in his seat in the dining room. He had impeccable timing as Alfred came through the doors with his breakfast platter.

"Since you've been stuck in a time loop for who knows how long, Master Dick, I assume I've been feeding you the same thing over and over again." Alfred stated as he sat the silver platter down and poured some milk in Dick's glass.

"You have no idea." Dick replied, his mouth watering at the _new _type of breakfast.

"Well, I do hope this will suffice."

"Alfred, anything you make is satisfactory." The old Englishman smiled warmly down at the boy.

"It's so relieving to see you back to normal, Master Dick." Just as Alfred said this, Bruce stepped into the room. Alfred left to bring his platter out as Wayne sat down at the end of the large dining table, just to Dick's left.

"How are you feeling?" he asked in a soft tone.

"Better, now that it's finally Friday and not Thursday." Dick replied, grinning up at him.

"So, are you willing to inform me of what happened?" Bruce began. Dick closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I kept waking up at 2:00 am, going to school, returning home, and then going to the cave before everything looped by the time it was four in the afternoon."

"That's not what happened yesterday." Bruce replied, keeping his eye on Dick. They looked down, knowing what was coming. "Yesterday you skipped school entirely, and had a nervous breakdown in my office." Bruce studied his ward as he continued. "Dick, I'm not mad at you. But you must realize, if someone is doing this and they find out, or already know, about what happened yesterday, they're going to exploit that. It's a weakness that we can't afford to be used against us." He explained. Dick lifted his head up.

"Someone's doing this? Did you find out who?" Dick asked, knowing that if his mentor used to term 'someone' and not adding the 'or something', then it meant he found out who or was close.

"Not yet, but I'm closing in." his guardian replied, looking down at the empty table. "Alfred, I know you're behind the door listening to our conversation, but could I please have my breakfast." Bruce spoke up. Just then, Alfred slipped through the double doors with platter in hand.

"Sorry about that, Master Bruce." Alfred apologized.

"So," Dick started. "Are you going to tell me what you did find?" He asked. Bruce just glanced at him while he started into his food.

"Eat your breakfast, you'll have to leave soon." He simply stated.

"I agree, you do have a field trip today, Master Dick." Alfred added, standing beside Bruce at the end of the table.

"I do?"

"Yes, the trip to Gotham's National History Museum." The butler informed him. Dick had lived through so many Thursdays that he had completely forgot about the field trip for his history class today. "Be sure to bring extra money with you."

* * *

Gotham City  
National History Museum; 8:40 EST  
Friday

The school bus pulled up to the sidewalk and opened its doors for the students to get out. Dick and his classmates, including Barbara, filed out of the bus and onto the street where, as directed by their teacher, grouped together to be counted. The teacher, Mrs. Vedor, began calling out their names. Dick and Barbara were talking to each other with hushed whispers.

"Is that why you weren't in class yesterday too?" She questioned, gesturing to Dick's slightly swollen wrist from the first time anomaly that he blamed on a slip in the bathroom.

"Yeah, Bruce just wanted to keep me home to give it time to heal." Dick explained the lie. It was weird for them to think that he had missed school the other day when in fact he remembers everything that happened.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay; it doesn't look too bad now." She replied.

"Jenny Harker?" Their teacher called out.

"Here."

"Thomas Gallory?"

"Here."

"Richard Grayson?"

Dick poked his head up at the sound of his name before responding. "Here."

"Barbara Gordon?"

"Here." His best friend replied as well once her name was called.

Down the street a bit, a black SUV pulled up and parallel parked next to the sidewalk. Its three passengers didn't move to get out of the vehicle, each of their eyes scanning the group of students in front of the museum doors. As the students were lead inside, one of the men spoke up.

"There he is." The other two then spotted the kid they were looking for, watching as Dick followed at the end of the line with his friend.

Unbeknownst to them, or even Dick, a dark figure jumped onto the rooftop of the building directly across from the museum.

* * *

Their teacher led them into the lobby of the museum before halting and handing out papers. Their assignment while exploring the museum. One of the security guards came over.

"If anyone has any bags with them, I would ask of you to kindly rent a locker and store it there please." He announced.

"Oh, we left all our bags on the bus." Mrs. Vedor replied with a smile. She was always organized and planned ahead.

"Thank you, mam." The security guy thanked before moving on. Soon, everyone was able to go their separate ways and complete the assignment which consisted of finding specific sculptures and paintings, as well as a paragraph or two of their favorite 'history' story.

As Dick and Barbara walked through the halls, Dick glared down at his paper with disgust.

"Why do they always give us an assignment when we do something fun?" he questioned.

"That's because we're supposed to be learning." Barbara replied, though she totally agreed with the acrobat, the assignment was stupid.

"I know that, but who said learning can't be fun? I mean, we watch a movie and we get a paper and a bunch of dumb questions to go along with it. And then we go on a field trip and have a report to do when we get back." He exclaimed.

"I know," The red head moaned, "And that's why kids hate school."

"I should convince Bruce to change a few things." Dick suggested.

"I would agree with you, but I think you might want to bring that up to someone higher than Bruce Wayne." Barbara said as Dick gagged in response.

"I don't like politics."

After an hour of walking around, and then twenty minutes of eating food at the food court, the teacher gathered all the students together near the front entrance and began listing off the names again. When everyone was accounted for, they walked outside and waited on the sidewalk for the bus to arrive.

"You know, it's really a nice day today for the season." Barbara commented out of boredom in waiting for the bus. She and Dick were standing at the far end of the group, Dick at the very edge.

"I know, and watch, tomorrow will be below freezing." He chuckled.

"And then it'll shoot up again the very next day." She added with a smile.

"The weather's so bipolar."

The three men in the SUV were watching the group, the driver saying something before opening the door and stepping out. The other two followed, all of them making their way over while putting on black ski masks. One of them pulled out a shotgun while the other two had pistols.

Dick and Barbara were talking to each other as their teacher was checking the street for any signs of the bus. One of the students glanced off to the left and noticed the three guys.

"Hey," his voice louder than any others'. "Who are they?" At the acknowledgment, the man with the shotgun fired into the air. The shot caught everybody's attention on the street as some of the students screamed and the pedestrians around the area yelling in fear and running away. The man pointed the shotgun at the group, his eyes scanning the children.

"Nobody move!" he ordered. The students cowered away as the men got closer, some clutching their friends while others had shaky legs. Dick and Barbara couldn't take their eyes off of the thugs. Barbara was just scared, while Dick had a bad feeling in his gut.

"Don't move!" one of the guys with a pistol said, pointed said gun at the teacher, Mrs. Vedor. She whimpered a bit at the action. "Put your hands up lady!" The man with the shotgun began lifting some of the student's heads up and looking into their terrified faces.

"Where's Wayne's kid?" the guy yelled out. Dick's eyes widened even further than they currently were and before anyone could blink, he bolted.

"Dick!" Barbara yelled after him as he dashed down the street. The one with the shotgun found him instantly, him and one of the others giving chase.

"There he goes, get him!" he barked. The third guy stayed behind and kept his pistol pointed at the group.

Dick ran madly down the street with the two armed thugs keeping up meters behind him. The one with the pistol began shooting at Dick but missed. Each time, though, he couldn't help but flinch as he heard the bullets either hit a pole he just passed or crash onto the sidewalk in front of him.

_What the heck! Are they trying to kill me?_ He screamed mentally, as normally he'd be dealing with kidnappers who needed him alive.

An alleyway was coming up, and Dick quickly rounded the corner just as the man with the shotgun stopped, aimed and fired. The brick corner he just ran past got shattered from the multiple collision. That one really made Dick flinch.

Sirens sounded off in the distance, a call obviously going out to them from the shooting. Dick prayed that Bruce found out what was going on as he stopped beside a dumpster and squeezed himself behind in, crawling out the other side and hiding behind a few full garbage cans. The two men rounded the corner and slowed down to a walk as they glanced around the dark alley.

"Where'd he go?" the guy with the pistol stated.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." The man with the shotgun sang before shooting at some boxes. "Come one, kid. We just wanna shoot ya."

"I still say it'd be easier to take him back alive." The other one commented.

"No it won't, and you know why. If we manage to kill the kid, but still get caught, the others can visit him at the morgue and get the device out of his gut there." The shotgunner replied.

Dick glanced around in confusion, a hand going to his stomach.

_What are they talking about? I have something in me?_ He thought.

"But I don't want to go to jail."

"Oh shut up, it's not our fault the kid swallowed it, now is it?" Dick's mind was taking up all of the information these loonies were feeding him, but something was wrong, off… besides the whole him apparently eating something and them trying to kill him. He got his answers when a voice sounded off directly above him.

"Ain't that right kiddo?" the shotgunner said with a twisted smile as he pointed the shotgun at Dick's face. The boy stared into the barrel of the gun, it only mere inches from his face. The man's trigger finger inched back, ready to release the wave of bullets, but not before his head got pounded into the brick wall from a black gloved hand.

He grunted loudly, the shotgun falling out of his hands and crashing beside Dick behind the garbage cans.

"Oh s***!" the pistol man shouted, pointing his weapon at the black figure before it smacked his hand away just in time as the bullet was released. The figure was Batman, and he was more than livid with them.

Batman twisted his body around the guy as he continued to shoot into the sky, slamming his fist down on the thug's arm. The force hit a muscle and the man dropped the gun. Batman flipped over and threw the guy into the brick wall. His friend had gotten back up now, a trickle of blood dripping down the side of his face as he attempted to through a few punches. Batman dodge them all like child's play and threw a few of his own, effectively knocking him back into the brick wall, face first again. He fell down, out cold.

The other was sitting against the wall when he saw Batman approaching. He flailed his hands out, repeatedly saying no and sorry until Batman grabbed his jacket collar and punched his lights out.

The alleyway turned over to silence. Dick took a peek over the trash cans and looked down at the two unconscious men, then up at his mentor.

"Are you hurt?" Batman asked in his deeper voice. Dick shook his head no. The sirens were closer now, practically right outside the alley as tire shrieks could be heard as well as doors opening and closing.

"Stay there until Commissioner Gordon comes." The Dark Knight said before zip lining back up to the rooftops. Dick watched him disappear, knowing that he had staked out the museum in advanced knowledge that something was going to happen. And he was glad, because if Batman had gotten the information from the police scanner, he wouldn't have gotten there in the amount of time he did. And Dick would be dead.

He heard pitter patter of feet and glanced over, seeing Commissioner Gordon and a few police officers running to the scene. Each of them had their weapons drawn, but relaxed at the sight of the two men, out cold against the brick wall.

"Commissioner?" a small voice sounded from behind three metal garbage cans and upon inspection, Commissioner Gordon found Dick.

"Dick?!" he announced, putting his gun back in its holster and reaching his hand down to help him out. He then proceeded to lead the boy out, ordering his men to tie up the two thugs. They walked up the street towards the ambulance, Dick looking up to see Barbara running towards them. She crashed into Dick with arms wrapping around his shoulders.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?! They didn't shoot you did they?" she cried out, following him and her dad towards the ambulance. Dick didn't answer her until they were inside the vehicle.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied. One of the medics looked him over until coming to an agreement with his statement. And that's when Dick's stomach began hurting. He suddenly thought back to what the thugs were talking about, his eyes widening.

"What's wrong?" Barbara asked him, noticing him tense up. The medic placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Give him some space." He said, and Barbara didn't push any further.

Dick didn't show that he was in pain, knowing that if what the thugs had said was true, then they'd want to take a look for themselves and keep the public out of it.

Some kind commotion came from outside the closed doors right before they opened. Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon were standing outside, and Bruce sighed in relief at the sight of Dick. He climbed in just as Gordon motioned for his daughter to come with in. She left and Bruce took her spot beside Dick.

The billionaire wrapping his arms around Dick's form, the boy leaning in at the comfort. They didn't say anything, just embraced each other's presence. The medic left them alone and joined the rest of the police force outside, closing the doors behind him.

"Did you hear?" Dick whispered.

"Yeah." Bruce whispered back.


	6. Chapter 6

Gotham City  
Batcave; 11:49 EST  
Friday

The MRI scanner buzzed softly, adding to the room tone of the Batcave. Bruce sat in his chair, suit on but cowl off, monitoring the incoming results as the scanner's arm repeatedly hovered up and down Dick's body. Dick himself lay still on the table. The only close he had on was a thin pair of black pants, specifically designed for the MRI scanner. With nothing else to do but lay still, Dick kept his eyes on the two older men; reading their body language due to the absence of words. Their butler stood talk beside Bruce, one hand on the back of the chair, as he too searched the results for some answers. A silver platter was tucked under his hand and behind his back.

The scanner's arm stopped right above Dick's head before moving on down to his stomach and hovering there. A series of taps from the keyboard registered through the wiring and caused a scope to extend out towards Dick's abdomen. The boy looked down at it as it focused in. Wayne tech was surely ahead of their time.

"Found something." Bruce announced. Dick looked over at the screen while Alfred leaned in a bit.

"What is it?" Dick asked, his current angle and position compared to the batcomputer limited his view.

"It… looks like a metal ball." Bruce replied, furrowing his eyebrows and zooming in a bit. The macroscopic object looked like a miniature, high tech Pokémon ball, and was attached to the inside of Dick's stomach. Bruce's fingers flew across the keyboard and the MRI scanner's scope retracted back into the arm.

"I ate a metal ball?" Dick questioned as the scanner's arm moved down the table allowing Dick to sit up. "How? I think I would have noticed if a round, metal object slid down my throat." He exclaimed.

"Have you been chewing your food, Master Dick?" Alfred inquired, giving the boy a raise of an eyebrow. Dick's eyes widened with realization.

"Oh, well, uh, that might explain things." He replied with a sheepish grin all the while rubbing the back of his head.

"Now the question is, where and when." Bruce stated, a hand going to his chin as he turned in his chair to face Dick and Alfred.

"It had to have happened at that charity event. That's the only public outing we've had all week and Tuesday's when all of these stomach cramps started." Dick deduced, hopping off of the table and joining the other two by the computer.

"Undoubtedly, but when?" Bruce asked to no one in particular, glancing down in thought. His attention moved back to the boy he saw as a son as a groan escaped the fourteen year old's lips.

"It was the cupcake wasn't it?! Oh, I'm never going to be able to trust cupcakes again." Dick exclaimed, holding a hand on his stomach as he slouched his shoulders in defeat.

"No," Bruce replied, "It wasn't the cupcake…" His thoughts ventured back to the first time he saw those men. He remembered their lips movement.

"_What do you mean you don't have it_…" Bruce repeated the words stated by one of the men at the dinner party. "He was talking to the waiter after the waiter told him something." He concluded, his eyes moving up to meet Dick's. "Dick, this thing was what they were talking about and it was in _your_ dinner plate."

"It sounds like the plate was supposed to go to someone else." Alfred commented.

"So this whole thing was an accident." Dick stated before crossing his arms. "Great." Droned out slowly.

"Not great." Bruce replied in a deeper tone than usual. Both he and Alfred look at the Dark Knight. "This… this isn't just a metal ball." Bruce began, realization hitting him and anger boiling up from the pit of his stomach. "This is a neural photon accelerator!"

"It's a brain implant?" Dick questioned fearfully.

"Sort of." His guardian responded, typing a few keys in and bringing up a visual of the metal ball in all of its glory. "Years back, before you became a part of our family, Dick, Wayne Tech was experimenting with photon energy and we theorized that if we were able to accelerate the photons enough using the human brain's electromagnetic impulses, one could control time and willingly travel through it with just a thought." He continued.

"But the experiment was increasingly moving towards the dark science, and I wanted nothing more to do with it. It was unstable, dangerous, and life threatening to its host; the exact opposite I wanted out of my projects at Wayne Enterprise." He explained. "I had a partner working with me on the project, James Ron. He was so obsessed with time travel, and was very excited to conclude the project. It was difficult to calm him down after the experiment was discontinued."

"Looks like he went ahead and finished it anyway." Dick replied. Bruce stood up.

"And now your life is at risk because of it." He growled in anger, looming over the two and causing Dick to take a step back. He knew what this was and it wasn't Bruce or Batman talking. It was his fatherly instincts.

"As your stomach acid continues to try and digest the photon accelerator, it'll begin to erode the metal alloy holding the radiated energy. Once that's gone, the compressed pressure will erupt, causing a highly tectonic burst outwards."

"I'm going to explode?!" Dick half-screamed, stepping back a bit more in dismay.

"And you're going to take the whole world with you." Bruce finished. Dick's eyes couldn't have grown any bigger as he retrieved the information. All he could do was stare at Bruce's furious expression. He felt warm hands grasp his shoulders, looking up to find Alfred. The old Englishman looked down at him with a concerned frown and reassuring eyes.

"Alfred." At his call, the man looked up at Bruce. "I need you to perform surgery." At Bruce's request, both Alfred and Dick stiffened.

"What? Master Bruce, I was indeed a field medic during the war, and have had my fair share of patching things up, but to perform surgery is out of my league!" the butler dismissed the idea with haste, keeping his tone stable while Bruce's anger turned to fear.

"Alfred, we need to get this thing out of him as quickly as possible!" Bruce counteracted.

"And I share your concern, Master Bruce, but if I go ahead and do the surgery, we may well retrieve the object, but it'll kill Master Dick." He explained. "I will contact Miss Leslie Thompkins to perform the surgery, but I will NOT be the one responsible for the young Master's death." Alfred finished his argument, neither of the three moving from their spots as silence filled the damp cave. The only sound was the soft buzzing from the electricity going into the batcomputer.

Bruce dropped his stare from the butler and sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was kill Dick, but time wasn't on their side. From the look of the device already, the erosion has taken away most of the alloy encasing. It was the reason why Dick had been experiencing the time anomalies. He kept the glare on as he looked down at Dick. Upon seeing his face, the stunned and fearful look that made him seem more human than ever before, his anger immediately vanished, being replaced with regret.

"I'm going after James." He announced with a softer tone. Dick seemed to have physically relaxed at the change and didn't remove his eyes from Bruce as the man approached him and Alfred with a less imposing demeanor. "You stay here until Thompkins arrives."

Dick didn't bother fighting with him, nor did he see the reason to. He just nodded before bowing his head, keeping his eyes on the floor. No one could have seen the emotion barely written on his face, just his stoic expression. But Bruce and Alfred were different, they were family and knew exactly what was going on. Dick was still processing the information. Bruce didn't blame him.

He flipped his cowl up and over his face before hopped into the batmobile, revving up the engine and taking off down the dark tunnel. The sooner he found James, the better.

* * *

Dick stared off down the tunnel where Batman disappeared. Leaning against the metal table of the MRI scanner, he turned his attention to Alfred who was on the computer calling Leslie Thompkins. But she wasn't picking up.

"That's oddly strange. I know she's a busy person, but she always takes my calls." The old butler inquired out loud.

"_Hi, this is Dr. Leslie Thompkins, I'm not available at the moment. Please leave your name and number after the beep. Thank you."_ The answering machine chimed through.

"Miss Thompkins, it's Alfred Pennyworth calling in for an appointment for Dick Grayson. He is in need of _special_ care and…"

Dick drowned out the rest of it as he melted into his racing mind.

_Okay, I have a radioactive bomb ready to explode in my stomach… I have a radioactive bomb in my—how did I even swallow that?!_

He shut his eyes tight when his stomach started aching again.

_Y'kno—I don't know what's worse. Not knowing what's making my stomach ache or finding out its cause is due to a BOMB._

_What am I going to say to my friends? Or the Team? Hey, I was stupid enough to swallow a bomb and now the whole world is at stake unless my doctor can remove it, which, might end up killing me, but hey, ya know, casualties happen…_

A single tear rolled down his left cheek. Dick's eye widened at its presence and quickly whipped it away; taking a big gulp to ease the knot forming in his throat. His eyes darted upward when an alarm went off on the batcomputer. It was a radio signal picked up from Gotham's news stations.

Alfred opened the file, just as curious as Dick was; the boy removing his weight from the side of the table and standing straight. The file was a recent report, probably going live at that very moment.

"—but evidence suggests a struggle. Police are continuing the investigation of Dr. Leslie Thompkins whereabouts." The newscaster said.

"Oh my." Alfred said before his eyes widened on the thought of Dick. He zipped around, seeing the boy walking over towards his uniform.

"Master Dick, I know what you're thinking…" Alfred began catching up to him.

"Good, then you also know why I have to go do it." Dick replied. When Alfred placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, he sighed. "Alfred, I know this is dangerous, but Bruce already left going after James and we need Leslie now. We can't wait around for the police to find her, and I bet you my entire allowance these goons we've been dealing with are responsible for her disappearance. Now there's nothing you can do to stop me. As much as I don't like the idea of going out by an explosion, I also don't want to be responsible for the destruction of the entire world." Dick said, in the middle of it all, turning to face his guardian. Alfred leaned down to his eye level.

"Master Dick, I wasn't going to argue with your judgment. In fact, I completely agree with you."

"Huh." Dick questioned with a tilted head. He was expecting an argument to say the least.

"It's Master Bruce's job to be the irrational parent when it comes to you and danger." Dick couldn't help but smile at that all so true statement. "But… I want you to promise me that you will find Dr. Thompkins and get right back here when you do. The more time we spend the less of a change you come out of this unscathed." Alfred replied.

"Can't argue with you there. Thanks, Alfred." Dick answered with sweet relief. The butler smiled warmly at him before releasing his soft grip on Dick's shoulder and letting him go.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**This chapter is significantly shorter than the others, but with my computer having locking me out and no internet to fix the problem, I'm stuck with typing and updating at my college whenever I have time in between my internship. And I really wanted to give you guys something after so long. Sorry for the loooooong delay with this chapter, by the way. I can't promise you the next chapter will be soon, but I know it won't take as long.**

**I do want to thank everyone whose reading, and reviewing, and favorite/following. It really makes me happy that you guys are enjoying the story.**


	7. Chapter 7

Gotham City  
Down town; 12:30 EST  
Friday

A small figure hopped along the rooftops above the bustling streets of Gotham. Below, no one paid attention to went on in the buildings above, save for a few dedicated reporters who kept their eyes out for the mysterious Bat and his bird. Still, even then, Robin kept his presence silenced.

Another gap between the buildings and the Boy Wonder flipped over it with ease, landing on his two feet like a cat. He continued his sprint across down town, towards the clinic Leslie ran. Although, it was a given she wasn't going to be there, Robin had a gut feeling she'd be close by. And no, it wasn't the bomb.

And when he said close by, he meant all of down town. Leslie's office was just the start of the maze, the center of the perimeter.

"Have you found anything yet, Alfred?" Robin asked after tapping his earpiece.

"Yes. I've found the van in the traffic footage during the time of Miss Thompkins' kidnap." Alfred informed him. "The van disappeared in the Life Lite tower parking garage, but I haven't seen any signs of them since."

"My guess, they're still there." Robin replied. "Thanks Alfred, I'll call you when I have Leslie."

Robin landed on the clinic's roof, halting in his run to glance around. He walked over to the edge, kneeling down so his head was closer to the siding, and pulled out his binoculars. Zooming in on the parking garage, he checked the entrance/exit. No one but regular civilians and one angry looking guard.

_Note to self: Watch out for the guard._

"Right, bottom floor in one of the bathrooms." Robin said with a mischievous smile. If Wally were here, he'd be all over him with questions asking how he knew that. The answer is, he's a detective.

With that, Robin replaced his binoculars with his grapple gun and shot off towards the garage with a cackle echoing down toward the streets.

* * *

The SMG slapped against the callus palm of it's owner. Five armed men occupied the men's bathroom, and one woman tied up in the corner. Leslie Thompkins kept her eyes down on the floor, her wrists tied behind her back and tape placed over her mouth. She glanced up at the men on occasion, still wondering how they figured it out. How could anyone figure it out, really, unless you absolutely knew the two.

"It's quiet." One of the men said, his deep voice echoing heavily in the room.

"It's a bathroom." Another retorted.

"Shut up!" the deeper voice replied enraged.

"Calm down." The overseer of the group said. "Someone go out and check the area." He said whilst motioning his gun at the entrance. Three of the lackeys glanced over at the forth and the man sighed. He held his gun tight and walked out, disappearing around the tiled, maze-like walls. The group heard the door open, then silence. Suddenly, a grunt echoed in the room, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Then silence.

"Jess?" one of the lackeys piped up, but got no answer. The leader narrowed his eyes and motioned for two others to go investigate. The two from before looked at each other before heading out. After rounding the first corner, they peered out around the second. 'Jess' was laying on the ground unconscious, feet in the bathroom and head out the door. The door per say was left ajar due to the man's body blocking it. The taller of the two, the one with the deeper voice, went first, carefully approaching his friend's unconscious form and peering out the open door.

"I don't see anyone." He said to his comrade. Suddenly, Robin swung down from his position above the doorway and, in a single swoop, kicked the man hard against the tiled wall not far behind the guy. The other man flinched from the sudden appearance of the hero and, out of pure reaction, fired his gun. Robin narrowed his eyes and disappeared out the door again, all the bullets embedded in the wall.

"It's the bird…! Robin!" the man shouted back to the rest of his conscious comrades. Leslie struggled a bit in her binds, hearing the gun shots and hoping none of them hit the boy.

The other two men left her side and joined their friend by the entrance, the leader taking a step forward before speaking.

"Hey, kiddo. We've been waiting for ya." The man only got silence. "Why don'tcha come on in, and we can have a little chat." Still no answer, or sound for that matter. All was quiet, save for the slight clattering of the gun the shaking lackey was still holding, aimed at the doorway and trigger finger ready to let bullets fly... again. The leader glared at him and hit the gun, effectively making the former lower it and relax a bit.

"Don't worry, we won't shoot ya." The leader took another step, turning around and whispering something to the non-frightened lackey. The man nodded and pulled out his taser. He glared at the other guy and hit his arm, the man quickly responding and pulling out his taser as well.

"I heard you swallowed a bomb." The leader went on, carefully taking each step toward the open door. At the statement, Leslie's eyes grew to the size of saucers. She mumbled something incoherent under the tape. "You must be surprised that we know. I'll admit, it was hard to come to the truth, but it really helps when the device you ate has a built in tracker." By this time, the man was next to the doorway, peering out into the parking garage, but seeing only a few parked cars.

With added courage, he bolted out, ducking, and rolling into position. He aimed his gun, looking everywhere: left, right, in front of him, behind him. Nothing. His tense stance only increased as only silence presented itself.

"Where are you?!" the man shouted, his voice easily bouncing off the walls of the parking garage.

Robin closed his eyes and shook his head at the idiocy of these guys. High above the man's head, Robin was spread star-like in between one of the riffs of the ceiling; his weight distributed evenly to his limbs to fight against gravity. He slowly dropped a hand from the concrete support and took out a flash bomb. He didn't bother throwing it, just dropping it straight down toward the guy.

Said man kept looking around before his attention was turned to a small metallic object coming down not an inch from his face. Then…

A big bang and a flash of blinding light sent the man reeling backwards. Robin dropped down from his spot, landing where the man once stood as the guy fell backwards, hands over his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I clearly had you guys all wrong." He chuckled out, "You're stupider than I thought." Footsteps from behind alerted him to the already known, and Robin quickly dodge to the side just as a strand of wires shot out. Instead of hitting him, they hooked onto the leader's prone form, jolts of electricity running through and shocking the guy.

"Really stupid." Robin retorted as he watched the leader flinch in pain.

"You little rich twerp!" one of the lackeys hollered as he came at Robin with his gun. Robin ducked the swipe of the gun that was meant for his head and punched the man in the gut.

"Correction, _I'm_ not rich. Bruce is." Robin countered nonchalantly as he flipped the guy over himself and threw him down onto the leader. "I get a pretty good allowance, though." He finished with a smile and innocent shrug of the shoulders.

"D-Don't move! Or I'll shoot!" the last of the lackeys stuttered out, his gun shaking in his hands. Robin's eyes looked behind him as his body turned around. He just stared at him, his expression half-hidden behind the mask.

"You're clearly not feeling the aster. How about this. If you let me and Miss Thompkins go, I won't hurt you." Robin compromised.

The man's shaken appearance seemed to ease up as his eyes widened at the boy. They darted to and fro before his mind finally made up a decision. He threw his gun down towards the boy and ran off.

Robin watched him go whilst shaking his head.

"I guess he was the only smart one." He commented, looking down at the gun and kicking it away before walking into the bathroom.

Leslie looked up at him with relief as the Boy Wonder rushed over to her, clearly uninjured. He worked on her bindings, successfully cutting her free for her to take the tape off. Unsurprisingly, what came out of her mouth wasn't a thank you.

"YOU SWALLOWED A BOMB!?" she half yelled in astonishment.

"It's a long story, but I promise to chew my food next time." Robin replied in defense.

"What?!" Apparently the promise didn't help for the old doctor was still outraged.

"Listen, we need you to do surgery to get the bomb out." Robin informed her, the two making their way out of the bathroom and through the garage.

"I can't do surgery." Leslie confessed in a more controlled tone.

"What?!" It was Robin's turn to wear the saucer eyes.

"My clinic got trashed when they kidnapped me, the equipment we need is ruined." She explained.

"There's nothing we can salvage?" Robin questioned, but the doctor shook her head no. His hand went up to his earpiece.

"Alfred, can we use—"

"I'm afraid not sir." Alfred cut him off. "I overheard, and it's another reason why I didn't want to do it on top of my skill. We have the proper equipment here, but the time not all the essentials…" Leslie walked up to the boy and took the earpiece out of his ear. Robin protested in response.

"Alfred? You can't tell me Batman doesn't have the tools to do this in the Batcave." She said.

"Of course he does, but our supply stock is low and Master Bruce has yet to restock it."

The doctor growled, "And here I thought Batman was the most paranoid guy I knew."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it all sucks, but we really need to get going." Robin interrupted, taking back his earpiece before replacing it in his ear.

Suddenly, car shrieks echoed down the ramps. From the sound of the engine, the driver didn't sound like he had all the time.

"Backup's arrived..." Robin stated whilst grabbing Leslie's arm and ushering her forwards. "To the stairwell, quickly!"

Leslie burst through the door and quickly climbed the stairs, Robin following closely behind her. They ascended past section F, then E, and then up to D to which was the ground floor. The doctor, out of breath, stopped for a bit before Robin grabbed her arm again and continued to run.

"We can't stop now." He told her as they ran towards the entrance where that mean looking guard was posted. He shouted out, but not at them. A vehicle speeding through the lanes of the street didn't bother with the guard as the van crashed through the stop bar and stopped in front of Robin and Leslie's.

"Run to St. Maire's Hospital, I'll meet you there!" Robin ordered as he shoved the doctor towards the street.

"But what about—"

"I'll be fine, just go!" he commanded with urgency as the armed men started filing out of the vehicle. Leslie made her escape just when the men cocked their guns at Robin.

"Don't move, Boy Wonder!" one of them commanded. Robin narrowed his eyes and quickly threw a load of gas pellets. They each bounced a few times before exploding, filling the area with light grey smoke.

Some of the men started to cough while others kept their cool and scanned around. Out of nowhere, Robin jumped in and kicked a guy in the face. As he fell down, the boy turned to the next guy and kneed him in the jaw. Three more fell after that, then another two. One of the men listened to the bodies falling and took out a device he had on his belt.

"This should take care of ya." He said, turning the dial to the on position and a diagram of the neural photon accelerator popped up.

Robin ducked a swipe of a gun before throwing a punch at the goon. He blocked it, but didn't block the next hit that came all too fast. His head flew to the side as Robin's fist landed a hit to his cheek. The man fell down, hand on the side of his face. The Boy Wonder was about to finish him off with a kick when a shock of pain erupted from his stomach. He cried out and clutched his abdomen, stumbling backwards.

The man on the ground grinned with malice, getting up and charging the boy. Unfortunately for him, Robin saw it coming, ducked, and flipped him over; the man face planting into the concrete ground. Robin's hand never left his stomach as he stumbled forward before falling down onto his knees. He didn't stay like that though, soon getting back up on shaky legs and continuing forward.

His pace was slow, extremely so, but the smoke still concealed his location, so he didn't try to hurry. The pain in his stomach was unbearable, every step bringing shocks of pain. It felt like the Joker stabbed him twice in the same spot, then left the knife in there.

But the pain didn't stop Robin. Even though each step only increased his agony, he started running. Even though he was running, he only made it 10 yards before he collapsed on the concrete. He lay there in a fetal position, moaning uncontrollably from the pain. He needed to get up, he needed to—

Hands grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to lift him up and Robin instinctively lashed out with a free arm. The gasp that came after surprised him, not at all a muscular but feminine.

"Robin, it's me!" Leslie shouted cowering from the attack while still trying to grab ahold of his wrist. He stopped and looked at her.

"I… told you… to—"

"You really think I'm just gonna leave you?" she replied, not letting him argue any further as she helped him up. "I know you too much to think you're like Batman." She said as they made their way out of the garage. "You don't _need _help, Robin. You _want_ it." She said, the two escaping the garage and heading off towards the hospital.

* * *

**Okay, so, I said the next update would probably be soon. When I said soon, I honestly didn't expect the very next day. But hey, who's complaining? I got a lot of free time today and so I took it. Let's just say this can make it up for the long delay. I'm not promising any dates for the next post, just keep a look out for my updates on my profile page.**

**Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

***Hey guys, long time no… read. I don't even know how long I've been gone, however, I'm sure it was over four months. This was because of many things. One being college. I had to work on three separate projects and a website and have them done for the portfolio show (which was a requirement for me to graduate) before having to work on my internship for a whole quarter. Two, I graduated, which means I had to deal with some financial crap. And thirdly, I STILL don't have internet, so I'm limited on the time I can post/update since I'll have to go to the public library to do so.**

**That being said, I've found myself wanting to write again and seriously couldn't just leave this story incomplete. I will inform you that I'm getting back on a daily schedule and am going to be posting/updating regularly. Unfortunately, it's a common thing to see on Fanfiction, writer's leaving for a long time before hopefully coming back. Writer's block, everybody hates it.**

**On a sad note, however, I'm sorry to say I will be discontinuing my other story **_**Seeing Red**_**. On a slightly happier note, I do have another story in mind and already have the beginning made up.**

**Last message, I have changed my username (and will be changing my picture) from MarshmellowCat to Dexterion. To help relieve any confusion that will surely follow for a short time, I will remind you all for the remainder of the story and post it on my profile. Now without further ado, read on my friends.**

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**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

Gotham City  
Unknown; 12:40 EST  
Saturday

The curtains blew inward from the wind coming through the open window. The cold winter breeze would send chills down any spine, but Batman's specialized kevlar kept that scenario at bay. The Dark Knight himself walked calmly towards the desk within the study, the frown on his face more prominent than usual. He glanced down at the papers laying on the polished wood, his eyes narrowing at their contents: schematics for the neural photon accelerator.

"Hello Bruce," a sad tone called out from the darkness, soon revealed to be an old man with a walking cane dressed in a formal suit. "If I may call you that."

"No, you may not." Batman replied, evidence of anger in his voice, but controlled. He straightened up from where he was hunched over the desk and turned his body facing the man.

"James?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes again at the look of the guy. It didn't make sense, James Ron was two years younger than him. He was supposed to be a criminally master minded 30 year old, not a man by the looks of ninety.

"Yes, it's me." The old geezer answered. "I doubt I need to tell you why I am the way I am."

"The neural photon accelerator." Batman's monotone never changed.

"I call it NiPA." James commented, coughing a bit afterwards before straightening his tie. "The prototypes still needed work when I first used it." He chuckled softly, "Sent me through a time rift and aged my body. When I got back, well…" His voice faded off, the rest not needed to tell.

"Why did you rebuild the device after I shut down the project?" Batman questioned.

James looked down in sorrow, "My wife was in a car accident. She died before the ambulance got to her. It was a drunk driver, two idiots who thought they could take a chance at life! She was 6 months pregnant, Bruce!" Batman's appearance didn't change and his monotone didn't change.

"So you tried to stop it from happening."

"It was my fault she left." James said, barely holding in his tears. "We had an argument." He looked up at Batman now, taking a few steps closer to him, the cane aiding in his balance.

"I want to turn my life around, to fix what I've done wrong. I just need the device from Dick and—"

"Mistakes are supposed to be _learned_, James, not righted."

"But I finished the flawed design! I have done the impossible, something you were too afraid of doing! "

"What you've done is endanger my _son_ and this world!" Batman released a bit of his anger, warning James not to push him.

"The boy wasn't supposed to eat the device!" he yelled in anger, slamming his cane down on the floor. "That was his mistake, not mine!"

"The only one at fault here is you, James!" Batman's collective state took a turn for the worst. His presence became dark and imposing as he willingly allowed his anger to fuel his words. "You built the device after I specifically told you to drop the experiment! After I informed you of the consequences of messing with matters we barely understand! Your actions caused this mess, continuing will result in something far worse than advanced aging." With each sentence, Batman took a step towards James. James didn't move as the space between them began to vanish.

"What if something happened to Dick? What if someone shot him like your parents, wouldn't you—" The Dark Knight roughly grabbed his jacket and lifted him up off the ground, his face inches from the mans'.

"Dick is in danger right now because of YOU! It's because you recreated the device and planted it in his dish that night that he has to undergo surgery to remove it." Batman nearly shouted in his face.

"He's not undergoing surgery." James' physic also took a turn for the worse as he struggled out of Batman's grip, to which the hero let him go, and stood before the imposing bat. "By now, my men would have captured your doctor and trashed her clinic. You either give that boy to me now, or I'll order them to invade your mansion next!"

"Call off your men and return Dr. Thompkins to the police, James." The Dark Knight ordered in an eerily quiet tone.

"I will NOT have my precious device destroyed after the many years I've spent in perfecting its design! Dick can die if it means I'll get my family back!"

Wrong answer…

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Leslie and Robin burst through the front door of St. Maire's Hospital, the Boy Wonder in question clutching his stomach tightly with his free hand, the other wrapped around the doctor's shoulder.

"I need an ER room, quickly!" she hollered, hopping over towards the front desk and ignoring the looks at them. It wasn't every day you saw _the_ Boy Wonder in the same building as you, or in a hospital for that matter.

Leslie released her grip on him and leaned in towards the nurse at the desk. "Please, he has a bomb in his stomach and I need to remove it." She whispered, trying to keep the public out of it in fear of the paparazzi… or worse.

The nurse stepped back with a squeak of surprise before running out and calling the doctors. Leslie knelt down to Robin and gripped his shoulders. The raven haired boy was doing his best to keep the moans in, hunched over from the pain with his eyes tightly shut.

"It's okay, I'm going to be able to remove it real soon." She reassured. "Just keep breathing in and out, like this." She began inhaling and exhaling in example.

Robin growled, "I'm not pregnant!"

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James' back was slammed against the wall, a result in the punch he had received from Batman. The old man shut his eyes from the pain, something that would have been almost nothing to him if he were his appropriate age.

With his cane still clutched firmly in his hand, he placed his thumb up on the top and pressed down on a button. Within seconds, a swat of armed men burst into the room and surrounded Batman; their weapons aimed at his head.

Batman pulled out two batarangs, his feet spreading apart with bent knees. He glanced left and right before settling his glare down at James. The man was desperate and driven, two combinations that screamed suicidal maniac. He didn't' care about Batman's life, or Robin's; but that also meant he didn't care about his men's lives either… and possibly even his own.

"Kill him, do whatever it takes to stop them from stealing my NiPA!" James ordered, using the cane to stand back up on his fragile legs.

"Whatever it takes." Batman repeated, "Are these men really going to be able to kill me before this building blows?"

The men surrounding them physically froze in their spots, heads pivoting back and forth as strange looks were distributed.

"What?" James replied with confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"You're a desperate man, James. So it didn't surprise me that you'd be expecting my visit and took it upon yourself to plant a bomb downstairs should your men fail to bring me down. Which, of course, I'm sure everyone here knows the likely outcome would be the later."

"Wha—He's lying!" James hollered at his men, seeing how their weapons were beginning to lower.

"The neural photon accelerator is unstable, James. It's going to explode and destroy the world. You don't care about anyone, not even yourself." Batman concluded, relaxing his body and putting his batarangs away.

One of the men lifted his hand and pointing at Batman, but his attention was directed towards James. "I signed up for this to get revenge, not to die."

"And you're going to trust what _he _says?! He's lying, trying to persuade you to lower your guard!"

"Batman doesn't lie, though." Another stated, feeling a bit on edge standing above a possible bomb ready to explode any second.

"Grow some balls, ya pussy's!" One of the guys nearest to James shouted in a deep voice. "If I get a chance to take out the Bat, hell, I'm gonna take it! Bomb or not!" He growled as he raised his gun.

Batman's hand shot out, letting fly a batarang. The bat shaped object hit its mark, slicing away some layers of skin on the man's hand causing him to hiss and drop the gun he held. The others took action, raising their weapons as well, but the same just happened to them.

Batman disarmed every single one of them before battling a few in hand to hand combat. The rest took off, seeing no point in dying in a losing battle. James was among them, except his perspective of the situation was exactly the opposite. He stopped by his desk and pressed a hidden button underneath. He ran out of the room, as fast as he could anyway, and proceeded to escape to the roof.

Batman threw the last of the men down on the floor, kneeling beside him, grabbing his head, and punching him hard in the face; effectively knocking him out. The Dark Knight looked around the room, not seeing any sign of the old man. Standing up, he bolted towards the window; glancing up, then down as a conclusion was made. His grappling gun shot upwards, pulling him along with it once it hooked to the edge of the roof.

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Robin opened the double doors of the E.R. and continue to hobble down the hall while Leslie followed, arguing with the doctors and nurses to let her take control of the situation. The elder woman opened the door to a prepped room, Robin going in and straight towards the bed. Two nurses stood waiting, one female, the other male, but were quickly ordered to leave by Leslie as she slightly fought with the doctor at the door.

"—Me believe that you are capable of performing an operation of this magnitude?!" The doctor argued, his voice laced with concern.

"I assure you, I have a degree and license in the medical field. Robin chose me to do the surgery, and that is just what I plan to do!" Leslie glared at him before gripping the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a vigilante to help!" And with that, she slammed the door shut and locked it.

The room was dramatically quieter now, save for a few grunts from Robin. Leslie rushed over and got straight to work.

"Okay, Robin, on a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" she asked, the question necessary for many reasons.

"Twenty!" Robin managed to spurt out. Leslie didn't giving him a second look as she fumbled with the drawers.

"Oh sh**." She whispered.

"What?" Robin replied painfully.

"I can't give you a sedative without risking an overdose and endangering your life."

"There's no time for that, just… do the surgery."

"What?!" Now Leslie was taken back. "You can't expect me to—"

"There's no time!" Robin interrupted her, his voice getting more serious now. "Please."

Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for another alternative than his choice. But she couldn't find any.

"Leslie…" His voice brought her back to the matter at hand.

She closed her eyes, "Just…" then swallowed hard, while picking up a scalpel. "Stay still."

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***Please note, if you haven't read the above statements, I have changed my username from MarshmellowCat to Dexterion.**


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